Be Dumb Bro

"Be Dumb Bro" is the debut mixtape from American musical artist and Flex Entertainment executive beetlebat, released on September 30, 2022. It includes features from Vandee, Kenny Mgee, Payden McKnight & Ben Riggle It is a concept release about having as much fun as possible despite how "dumb" it is. The production consisted of self-produced beats and other assistance from Payden McKnight and Lil Squeaky, as opposed to free-for-profit YouTube beats. The engineering was handled by all three of them. It features a variety of lyrical themes about flexing, his life story, and his position in the game.

The mixtape includes the singles "Sun Goes Down", "Innocent", and "This Year."

Background
Beetlebat teased an upcoming tropical house song produced by Lil Squeaky. "Sun Goes Down" was announced on March 26, 2021 which has a feature from pop artist Ben Riggle. It was released on March 27, 2021. A remix of the song made by Canadian electronic producer 5ach!† was later released on May 28th. It leaped from No. 25 to No. 1 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100, becoming his first ever number one single. It is his most successful chart hit lasting a whole year on the chart. He announced in his last video of 2021 that he would be releasing his debut mixtape in 2022 and a new single would drop in the first quarter of 2022.

He announced to release a new song titled "Innocent" on April 8th, 2022, after one year. This was announced during Beetle's first YouTube video in four months where he was shown being spotted by cops. The conceptual song is about Beetle being accused by a woman for harassing her on the beach. The video was amassed three-hundred views and forty likes in twenty-four hours, his fastest growing video since "Physics" in 2020. The song debuted at No. 2 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. A remix was secretly assembled by Lil Squeaky featuring himself, Tending Bike and SWAGMAN67, and was released shortly thereafter. He would hop on an R&B track with Lil Squeaky called "One Bent Knee", released on June 10, 2022. Beetle continued his hot 2022 with the pop rap single "This Year" featuring fellow ginger Payden McKnight, which was released on July 25, 2022. A music video would be released on August 12, 2022. On September 26, Beetle put out a last night tweet using Base64 encoder to state "Announcement 3 PM EST." At that time, Beetle announced that his debut mixtape "Be Dumb Bro" would be released on September 30. On September 28, Beetle revealed the tracklisting with the tape including ten songs with features from Vandee and Kenny Mgee.

Recording
The early stages of the record began in early 2021 with the release of "Sun Goes Down." It was the last song that Beetle recorded in Audacity, and the only song he would make that year. He would begin to transfer into using FL Studio in order to try out music production. He would start using it in May of 2021, only to record features. Throughout 2021, Beetle was planning out the theme, tracklist, and music. After nearly a year of musical activity by January 2022, Beetle teamed up with Payden McKnight to get himself back into the music space again. The two would produce the songs "Innocent" and "The Grocery List Song" with Vandee. These are the first Beetlebat songs recorded in FL Studio. The process took four months due to Payden and Vandee's busy schedules during that period. Eventually, "Innocent" was released as the second lead single in April alongside a music video filmed in Destin, Florida. In May 2022, Squeaky offered several beats for Beetle to use. He would end up choosing the beats that would be used for "Moneymaker" and "This Year." He would record both tracks that very month. During the "summer grind" of 2022, Beetle started learning how to produce beats and mix/master through YouTube tutorials. He would produce and record "Session", "Flex On Em", "Ruckle Hero", "Blackout" and "Ghost" all by himself. He bought a new microphone and Bluetooth headphones to improve his sound. He would also move his entire setup from his parent's walk-in closet to his own room in JUly. He reached out to Payden to feature on "This Year" with the original feature being Ashi. The track would eventually be released on the 25th. A music video was filmed and released in August up north. He would spend the rest of September mixing and mastering the rest of the project. He sent "Moneymaker" to Squeaky and "The Grocery List Song" to Payden for them to master. "Ghost" was the last song to be finished as he was waiting on an Ivan Knight closing feature that would never happen due to schedule conflicts. Beetle would instead include a voice memo he recorded in August talking about the project.

Music and Lyrics
TBA

Singles
"Sun Goes Down" features fellow YouTube and pop artist Ben Riggle. It was released on March 27, 2021. The single was critical acclaimed by critics, calling it his best work to date. The music video for “Sun Goes Down” was released on July 9, 2021. It originally wasn’t planned to happen but it ended up being considered after they decided to meet up in Indianapolis. It is a vlog style visual where the two artists hold the camera themselves. It was praised by the Flex community, cementing itself as Flex’s song of the summer. "Sun Goes Down" debuted at No. 4 on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100, becoming Beetle's highest charting Hot 100 single. It became Beetle's fifth Top 10 single and Ben's first. It fell to No. 9 the following week. It returned to No. 4 in June after 5ach!†'s remix of the track was released. In it's 23rd week, the song leaped from No. 25 to No. 1 after a huge week on YouTube. It became Beetle and Ben's first number one. It has spent fourteen weeks in the Top 10 and fifty-two on the chart in total. It is his longest charting and most successful song on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. It ranked as the sixth biggest song of 2021 and fifteenth biggest song of all time on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. It is also the tenth song to spend an entire year on the chart. It was certified eleven-times platinum by Flex Entertainment.

"Innocent" was released on April 8, 2022, as one of the two lead singles for his debut mixtape. It debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Flex Entertainmrnt Hot 100, his second-highest charting single. The music video for “Innocent” was filmed in Destin, Florida. It features Beetle, a Karen, a judge, and various backup dancers. Beetle poses in several scenes rapping the song. One scene shows Beetle and the Karen at court debating the case. It is declared that Beetle was innocent in the case as the Karen leaves the scene at the end. The video was well received, amassing three-hundred views and forty likes in twenty-four hours. This makes it his fastest growing video since the music video for "Physics" in 2020. It has one-thousand views as of May 2022. The song received mostly positive reviews from critics and fans with some regarding it as a massive improvement of his musical work. A remix of the song with Lil Squeaky, Tending Bike, and SWAGMAN67 was released on May 9, exclusively to the Flex Entertainment YouTube channel.

"This Year" was released on July 26, 2022, as the third single. It features frequent collaborator and ginger Payden McKnight. The single celebrates Holistic Therapy day. The song received critical acclaim upon its release, praising the hook and production. It currently has a rating of 90 on AlbumOfTheYear from 8 ratings. It debuted at number three on the Flex Entertainment Hot 100. It became Beetle's eleventh top ten and Payden's fifteenth. After the release of the music video, it rose to number one becoming Beetle's fourth and Payden's second number one single.

Critical Reception
"Be Dumb Bro" received overall positive reviews from critics, averaging a score of 74 on AlbumOfTheYear. The reception was fairly divided with reviews panning the record, calling it disappointing, enjoying it, and some calling it one of the best Flex releases of 2022. People were critically towards its inconsistent mixing and mastering but praised the theme and charm of the record.

Chart performance
Be Dumb Bro debuted at number one on the Braeden's Most Played Albums chart with 370,000 units sold. It is his first number one album and second top ten release. The following week, it spent a second week at number one with 270,000 units sold in its first full tracking week. It was certified Platinum by BMP.

Track Listing

 * 1) "Session" - 3:21
 * 2) "The Grocery List Song" (feat. Vandee) - 3:29
 * 3) "Ruckle Hero" - 3:03
 * 4) "Moneymaker" - 2:58
 * 5) "Flex On 'Em" (feat. Kenny Mgee) - 3:32
 * 6) "Innocent" - 2:28
 * 7) "Blackout" - 3:09
 * 8) "This Year" (feat. Payden McKnight) - 3:04
 * 9) "Sun Goes Down" (feat. Ben Riggle) - 4:08
 * 10) "Ghost" - 5:53

Personnel

 * beetlebat - primary artist (1-10), engineer (1, 3, 5, 7, 10), producer (1, 3, 5, 7, 10), co-producer (2, 6, 8)
 * Lil Squeaky - mix engineer (4, 9)
 * Vandee - featured artist (2)
 * Payden McKnight - featured artist (8), engineer (2, 8)
 * Kenny Mgee - featured artist (5)
 * Ben Riggle - featured artist (9)